


Parallel

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Backstory, Book: The Magician's Nephew, Charn, Childhood, Dysfunctional Family, Dystopia, Eavesdropping, Gen, Gossip, Isolation, POV Child, Twins, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-16
Updated: 2011-03-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 04:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1969290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jadis didn't meet her sister until they were seven years old. Until then, she had nothing but rumors and dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parallel

**Author's Note:**

> A couple years ago I tried to write a story about Jadis and her sister for Femgenficathon, which would intersperse the last days of Charn with flashbacks to their childhoods. That didn't work out -- I ended up writing about Jadis and the Lady of the Green Kirtle instead -- but I did finish one of the flashback sections, and I think it stands reasonably well on its own. So here it is.
> 
> (I swear the wordcount is completely accidental.)

Jadis knew in a vague way that she had a sister. "Two of you born in the same hour," a new under-nurse told her in a conspiratorial whisper when she was five years old. "They say you would have been first, but the birthing cords were tangled and your mother dying, so the prince-your-father gave the order to use knives... and the surgeon pulled your sister out before you."

"Oh," said Jadis. She wanted to ask if it mattered who was older, but the prince-her-father frowned when she asked questions of her nurses.

She listened to them gossip instead.

"Twins," the oldest under-nurse said as the clutch of women drank ink-black tea one afternoon. Jadis, awakened from her nap by a passing raven's cry, slid from under her blankets and crept to the doorway of her bedroom, pressing her face to the crack between the ebony doors. "Nothing good can come of it," the gray-haired under-nurse continued. "They'll be the death of us all, no doubt. The crown prince should have killed them at birth."

"Surely only one needed to die to negate the legend?" a short, slender under-nurse suggested, stirring red spice into her teacup.

"Don't talk nonsense," the chief nurse said contemptuously. "That's all superstition, spread by spies and liars. In any case, neither girl will rule. Prince Mordan will follow his father to the throne, gods willing."

The young under-nurse who had told Jadis about her birth turned her empty teacup over on her plate, trapping a wandering beetle underneath the bone-colored porcelain. "How long to force them onto different paths?" she asked, tapping the cup with her long, lacquered nails. "When will it be safe for them to meet?"

Jadis pressed herself tighter to the doors, listening with all her might.

The chief nurse shrugged. "Who can say? That's for the queen and the crown prince to decide, after the sacrificers read the omens. But I would think not until the age of reason."

"It's wasteful," said the small under-nurse who liked red spice. "Two whole wings of the palace sealed off utterly from each other, all to keep two tiny girls apart. Two separate staffs to tend their every need. I still say the other girl should have been killed. Our Jadis is a bright child, every inch a queen in waiting, but her sister? Pfah! She's a wolf in human skin."

"Careful," warned the fourth under-nurse, a plump woman with cinnamon skin and a sour face. "You never know who might be listening."

The five nurses glanced uneasily at the outer door and the ceiling corners, and their conversation drifted onto other topics: laundry, schedules, and the virtues and faults of various footmen, maids, and chefs. Jadis listened for another minute, but grew bored and wandered back to her bed.

What did it mean if her sister was a wolf in human skin? Was that good or bad? She'd seen a wolf pack once, not long ago, when her father took her to the arena for the afternoon to watch animals and people tear each other apart. The wolves had been sleek and silver, all teeth and patience, and they'd stripped a pair of criminals to bloody bones.

The wolves had worked together.

Jadis closed her eyes and imagined a girl just like her, but with silver hair, golden eyes, and long, sharp teeth. She wondered if the girl would try to kill her, or if they might play together like the baby wolves had done while their parents hunted. She wondered if she could hunt with that girl. The people in the arena had just stood on the sand, weeping and shaking, without even trying to use the spears they had been given. They had submitted to death.

They were fools. Surrender was wrong, even when fighting could only postpone your fate. That was what the prince-her-father said, and Jadis knew he was right.

Jadis wondered if she might have to fight her sister.

She didn't think she'd mind.


End file.
